Regarding Robin  Expanded
by shadowwhisper123
Summary: On the Anniversary of his parents' death. Robin finds himself reflecting on the family that he lost and how much he still misses them and the other Titans try to comfort him in any way that they can. Expansion of Teen Titans Go! Issue #47
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This is my very first fanfic, so its easy to see why my writing isn't that great, as I'm kind of a newbie at this whole thing. Basically, this story is an expansion of the Teen Titans Go! Issue #47, which reveals Robin's origin and backstory and tells a little tale about him remembering the deaths of his Mom and Dad. I liked the story, but I thought that it was a little too short and would have liked to have seen it a little longer, so I expanded it with this story. I hope that you can enjoy it, and if you don't, please tell me what I should to improve. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or Teen Titans Go!**

Regarding Robin

Prologue

"There you go, see? Look, you're almost home, right?" Is that your house?" The little girl that Robin was holding twisted around in his arms and turned to look at the row of houses. She had been half-asleep but at the sight of this, her face lit up and she smiled and clapped her hands. "Yeah! That's it! That's my house, right there! The yellow one!" Robin smiled back at her. "You ready to see your mom and dad again?" "Mm-hm!" When the girl and her rescuer were in standing in front of her family's porch, he set her down. She grabbed his hand in her two tiny ones and pulled him up the steps. Then, she rang the doorbell at least a hundred times. "Mommy! Daddy! Wake up! I'm home! I'm home!" It wasn't long before they heard a man and a woman come thundering down the steps and saw them throw open the door. "LUCY! Oh, baby, oh, honey, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" the woman cried. She immediately swooped her daughter up and started crying out of relief and joy. The father was equally tearful and he wrapped his arms around his wife and child. Lucy could only laugh at the sight of her mom and dad crying, but she hugged them just as hard as they were hugging her and tried her best to return their neverending shower of kisses. "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. We thought we'd never see you again." "Daddy, you're choking me!" "Thank goodness, oh thank goodness…." Robin stood back, feeling very satisfied and happy. This was why he donned his costume every day. This was what made all those sleepless nights, grueling workouts, excruciating injuries, and ceaseless battles and chases worth it: innocent people getting to live in peace and without fear of criminals ruining their lives. In the middle of the family's reunion, a white shih tzu scampered to the door, yipping and scratching at it frantically. Lucy turned to look at it. "Sophie! Mom, Dad, pu'me down, I wanna say hi to Sophie." Lucy was granted her request and the door was opened. She squatted down on the wooden floor and allowed the little dog to lick her face as she petted her. "Hi Sophie! Hi! I missed you too!" Lucy's parents went over to Robin. The mother gratefully threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you, Robin. Oh, thank you so much!" Robin returned the hug and patted her on the back. "No problem, ma'am. Really. All in a day's work" When she released him, the father placed a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Thanks for bringing our little girl back home," he took a checkbook and pen out of his jacket pocket and started to scribble something on it. "Look, I know we can't possibly thank you enough, but let us at least-" Robin held up his hands and stepped back a bit. "Oh, no. Thank you sir, but I can't take your money." "Please, I insist. After all, if you hadn't rescued Lucy, we would have had to spend almost all of our life savings on the ransom that those creeps were asking for her." "By the way, what happened to them?" "Don't worry, ma'am. The police is taking care of them and they're on their way to jail as we speak. Look, I appreciate you trying to pay me back, but I really can't take it. Besides I gotta get back to the tower. Bye, now." Robin strode over to where he had parked his R-Cycle and put his helmet back on. When Lucy heard it revving up she ran back out on to the porch and waved goodbye. "Bye-bye Robin! Thanks again!" He waved back at her one last time and she took her mom and dad by the hands and walked back inside with them. Riding by the various houses, he saw similar scenes. Families playing together,

"_Ha! Now you have to king me, Mom!"_

"_Aw, nuts. Not again. John, our little robin is beating me very badly."_

"_Is that so? Nice going, Dick. Hopefully now your mother will stop making fun of me whenever you kick _my_ butt at cards."_

Reading bedtime stories,

"_Okay, Mom, I finished all my homework AND I ate all my broccoli. Can we PLEASE read _Robin Hood_ now?"_

"_Yes we can, honey. John, you start this time right?"_

"_Yep. All right, let's see. Where we're we-oh yeah. Oooh, here we go, Dick. This is it!:" The Shooting Match at Nottingham Town." This is the part with the archery contest,"_

"_Yes! Finally! Okay, Dad, get started, I'm ready!" _

Kissing each other good night,

"_Goodnight, Mom."_

"_Goodnight, sweetheart."_

"_I love you, little mister."_

"_I love you too, big mister."_

He sighed, thinking about how long it had been since he had had a life like that. How long he had been without his parents…how much he still missed them.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One The Nightmare Returns

Dick Grayson was surrounded by darkness. He couldn't even see his own hand and he had no idea where he was. Suddenly, two spotlights flashed on, shining light from the top of the area all the way down to the floor. Standing in the stream of brilliant, golden light atop a platform were his dad and mom: John and Mary Grayson, the Fearless Flying Graysons, the best acrobats in the greatest show on earth, his family, his teachers, his guardians, and his heroes. They turned from facing forward toward the trapezes and looked down at him, waving. His dad beamed at his son and gave him the thumbs up sign and his mom grinned and blew him a little kiss. Dick returned their smiles and waves and gave them two thumbs up, knowing with pride that his family was about to utterly dazzle the audience once again. It was then that he glanced up and noticed that a strange liquid had stained some of the trapeze ropes. He gasped. "Mom! Dad!" he yelled, "Wait, don't jump! The rope-it's gonna snap! You'll fall!" But no matter how hard he tried to get them to hear him, they kept on waving and smiling down at him and the rest of the circus crowd. At last, John walked forward and grasped the bar of the first trapeze, and then he stepped back a little, ready to jump. "NOOO!" Dick shrieked, sprinting as fast as he could to where his parents were. But no matter how hard he ran, he never seemed to get any closer. "PLEASE! STOP! DON'T! NOOOOOO!" Once again, to no avail. John swung out over the ring, then released the bar and performed a quadruple somersault, their family's signature move, before grasping a hold of the second trapeze's bar. "DAD, GO BACK, HURRY! MOM, STAY THERE! DON'T GO! PLEASE!" Tears were streaming down Dick's face. He knew what was about to be forced to see again. He had relived the worst day of his life many, many times over in his dreams. Mary followed her husband out into the air, flying as gracefully as a bird in the springtime. The trapeze rope was fraying badly, but John and Mary were too focused on impeccably nailing their death-defying flips and stunts to notice. John performed an impressive maneuver on his trapeze: twisting around above the bar and then hooking himself to it by his knees-ready to catch his wife. Mary launched herself off her bar, spinning around in a corkscrew pattern before taking hold of her husband's wrists. That did it. The acid finished burning through the ropes and the trapeze fell, taking the Flying Graysons with it. Finally, the audience under the big top was screaming and sobbing along with him. The last thing that Dick saw was his parents' horrified and anguished faces staring back at him as they plunged to the ground below. He blinked and found himself in the center of the ring, kneeling down between them, his colorful circus costume spattered with their blood just as it had been on that day. He started to turn them over with shaking hands, but then quickly drew back at the sight of John and Mary's bashed faces, frozen in complete shock. The spotlights went out and everything disappeared into silence and blackness. Dick buried his face in his hands and wept, shivering, curling up and sinking even further to the floor.  
>When he took his hands away, the abyss was gone and replaced with the ceiling of his room in Titans Tower. He sat up, stretched and rubbed his eyes. After walking into the bathroom to spike his hair and brush his teeth, he glanced at the calendar that he had hung on his wall and realized what day it was. It was the anniversary of his parents' murder. Well, he couldn't think about that right now. There was work to be done. He finished getting dressed and went to join his friends in the main room of the tower. Beast Boy was sitting at the table, scarfing down his breakfast tofu and soymilk. Raven was sitting on the sofa, reading a book with a cup of herbal tea in front of her on the coffee table. Cyborg looked up from the bacon and eggs that he was frying. " 'Morning, Rob!" he said with a smile. "Morning." He replied. "You want some eggs? I've got a few extra, here." "No thanks, Cyborg. I'm not all that hungry." Robin sat down at the table with a bowl of his favorite cereal and a cup of orange juice. He took a few bites and then he remembered that it had been his Mom's favorite cereal too.<p>

"_Hey, Mom, what's that your eating?"_

"_Its Crocky Crunch, Dick. I've been eating it ever since I was your age. Do you wanna try a bite?"_

"_Sure. Mmmm. That's tasty! Can you pour me a bowl?"_

"_Mm-hm! Here you go."_

"_Eat up, everyone. We've got a big show tonight so we have to make sure our routine is perfect."_

"_You bet, Dad!" _

That diminished his appetite even more. Cyborg joined the other two boys with his breakfast. "Everything okay, man? You look kinda down." "Huh? Oh. Don't worry. I'm fine. I just-didn't sleep all that well last night." "What else is new?" Beast Boy quipped. Raven glared at him and jabbed him in the ribs with her sharp elbow "Ow!" After he had finished cleaning up his dishes, Robin walked over to the computer and checked to see if there were any alerts in the city. Nothing. Great. Just when he needed something to take his mind off of things, no criminal felt like attacking the city. He sighed. "Well guys, since there aren't any alerts yet, I'm just gonna go back to my room and work on some things. Let me know if you need me." He got up and walked back to the room where he kept his crime files without another word. But just as he approached the door, Starfire flew through it, back from her morning walk with Silkie. "Greetings, Robin!" she said in her usual jubilant tone. Robin smiled weakly back at her. "Hey, Star." Starfire frowned, a puzzled look on her face. "Robin, you look most unwell. Perhaps you have the fever?" The alien princess reached out to touch his forehead, but he backed away. "No, Starfire. Don't worry, I'm not sick. I just-need some time." "But Robin-" The Teen Wonder strode away from his friends, hanging his head. The other four Titans stared at the door, dumbfounded. "I have never seen Robin so melancholy before," Starfire said sadly. "Yeah, neither have I," Cyborg said in agreement. "Same here," said Beast Boy. Raven stayed quiet. She racked her brain, remembering the time when she had been inside of Robin's mind, trying to figure what could be upsetting him. The images of his most awful memories played through her mind once more. "Maybe he's missing Batman?" she thought. "Or maybe…" Then she walked over to the tower's main computer and opened up the Jump City library news archive webpage. In the search bar, she typed in: "Richard Grayson." Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy walked over to join her. "Richard Grayson? That's Robin's real name right?" said Beast Boy. On the day that they had won the race with Ding Dong Daddy and recovered Robin's stolen briefcase, their leader had at last revealed his secret identity to his teammates.

**Flashback**

_What was inside of the briefcase was a small, worn, sleeveless unitard. It was red and green, with a large yellow stylized "G" emblazoned over the chest. It also had some dark, faded red patches on it that had never been completely scrubbed off. Cyborg was the only one who had recognized it. "Wait a minute…" he had said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I've seen that costume before, I just can't remember where…" "Did you ever go to the circus with your parents when you were younger?" Robin asked. "Yeah, when I was like, eight. It was H-something circus." "Haly's Circus?" Robin asked. "Oh, yeaaaah. That was it!" "Do you remember the trapeze artists? That was my family's act. We called ourselves the Flying Graysons. Me and my parents performed together since I was really little." Beast Boy spoke up "I think I saw something on TV about them once. Weren't they the ones who could somersault four times in a row?" Robin smiled and nodded. "Yep! That was us. My real name is Richard Grayson. But everyone close to me calls me Dick. And it was my Mom who gave me the name Robin." He turned to Starfire. "My birthday is on the first day of spring, and Robins are usually associated as sign of the coming of that season." "Where are your parents now?" Starfire inquired. Beast Boy threw her a pained look and Cyborg lowered his gaze as Robin told them the rest of his story. The two of them remembered it. It had been all over the American headlines:" Two Trapeze Artists Brutally Killed by Mafia Boss Tony Zucco, Brought to justice by Batman and his new junior partner Robin." _

"When she pressed "enter" on the keyboard, the most results that came up with his name on it had the Flying Graysons murder story on it. At last it was clear to everyone why Robin was looking so glum that day. The date of the murder and the date of the present day matched.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2 Robin and Cyborg

Robin entered his news archive room and went to over to check his filing cabinet, wanting to reorganize his crime files. He checked every drawer, but he found barely anything out of alphabetical order. He let out a discouraged sigh and scanned the many sketches, photographs, wanted posters and newspaper clippings that he had mounted on the walls. Most of them were of criminals that operated in or around Jump City, but others were of heroes: the Justice League or the Titans in their finest hours. At last he came to one poster that was of neither criminals nor heroes. It was the flyer that the circus had used to advertise the Flying Graysons. The top half of the flyer was a photograph of him and his parents, grinning proudly. His mother was on the right, her long, shiny red hair pulled into a tight braid. His father was in the center, his left hand on Dick's shoulder. The bottom half showed his father with is knees hooked to the trapeze while holding his mother by her waist, her arms spread out like the wings of a swan and her legs together. Robin pulled up a chair in front of the flyer and sat down, staring at the picture. His thoughts travelled back through time. He remembered how difficult it had been to adjust from living with them to living with Bruce. In addition to practicing and performing with his parents, he was also homeschooled by them, so he was with them almost all day. Not to mention the fact that they were _very_ warm and affectionate people. There was never a day that went by without them letting him know that they loved him. John Grayson was of Romani descent, an ethnic group that valued family above everything else, so he was more openly loving than other Dads he had met. Robin remembered how he sometimes called him "_ves'tacha_", a term that the Romani used to express great affection for someone. Most of the time, the closest that Bruce got to something like that was on the occasions when he would tell him: "Good job," or "I'm proud of you, Robin." Come to think of it, Bruce always did something to commemorate the death of his parents, but what could he do? Being so far away from Gotham, he could not visit their graves or lay roses on where they had fallen, like Bruce did. He had to something in honor of his parents today. He could not just mope around nonstop. But what?

"_Hey Dick, I've got a new move for our routine. Want me to show it to you?"_

"_Yeah, lemme see!"_

_John climbed up the ladder to the platform with Olympic speed and instead of grabbing the trapeze bar and pulling it back he loped from one end of the platform to the other and jumped off, catching the trapeze bar with only one hand, swinging on it to propel himself diagonally, and then he released, performing a triple flip before landing on a platform that was set up below the one that stood on the opposite end of the ring from where he had started out. Dick's eyes widened in admiration. He applauded and whistled. His father took a bow. "Thank you, thank you."_

"_Wow! That was awesome, Dad! I wanna try that!"_

"_Okay, then. Go for it!"_

_Dick scrambled up the ladder as fast as his arms and legs would carry him. He took a flying leap to take hold of the first trapeze, but he could not reach far enough and fell all the way down to the safety net that was stretched out at the bottom of the arena._

"_Its okay, son. Don't worry about. Remember what your Mom and I taught you. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Go on, get back up and the ladder and give it another shot." Dick nodded and hurried back up. His second try also ended in a fall. On his third try, he managed to catch the bar, but his grip wasn't strong enough and he fell again. On his fourth try, he did it! He grasped the bar with one hand and swung back and forth a few times, building his momentum and getting ready to flip down below. "That's my boy! You've got it!" This time, his flip was too far out and he missed the platform on his way down, tumbling onto the net once more. Dick sat up, struggling to keep himself from crying out of frustration. "Dad, I'm never gonna get that move. It's impossible." John sighed. He climbed up onto the net and took his son into his strong arms. "Dick…_ves'tacha_, don't let these things get to you. Believe me, I know exactly how you feel, I've fallen flat on my face loads of times. Maybe right now you can't get it, but who knows? Maybe tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Who knows? Maybe it'll take you a couple of years to figure it out? But that doesn't mean a thing. What counts is that you never stop trying no matter what. That's what separates a winner from a loser. And I know you're not a loser. So will you promise me, Dick? Will you promise me you'll never stop trying? Never stop hoping that you can do what only seems impossible at first?" Dick rubbed his eyes and nose, sniffling. "Uh huh." John ruffled his hair and beamed at him. "All right!" _

"Robin…you okay?" Cyborg had joined his teammate in the crime file room. "Hey, isn't today—" "No, I was just…um…Thinking about this move my…uh…Dad once taught me." He wasn't used to sharing such personal information. Probably due to the fact that Batman had rigorously trained him not to: "_When you put on that costume, you're not Dick Grayson anymore. You're Robin. Nothing more, nothing less_," he remembered being told. Robin turned back to stare at the picture of his father again. "Heh. After all these years, still haven't quite…nailed it." "Anything I can help you with?" Robin grinned, grateful to count Cyborg among his friends. "Actually…" Robin wanted to go to the gym for several reasons. One: exercise always helped him relieve stress. Two: extra combat practice was never a bad thing. Three: he could keep on fulfilling the promise he had made to his Dad. If there was one thing that Robin hated, it was feeling useless and not doing anything about things that concerned him. Cyborg helped him set up the exercise equipment and obstacles the way he wanted them, and then they began training. The cybernetic teen stood several yards away from the boxes that they had set up near a large ring that hung from a rope on the ceiling. "Ready?" Cyborg nodded. "On your mark. Get set. Go!" Cyborg started firing at Robin, testing his agility and evasiveness. Robin dodged every blast, ducking, cartwheeling, jumping, and somersaulting out of the way. He climbed up the first box and sprinted over to the other end of it. "Mom, Dad, this is for you," he thought. Robin leapt of the edge, grasped the ring and swung out far diagonally. Cyborg could only watch as he performed a quadruple somersault in front of him once more and stuck the landing without a step out of place. Cyborg remembered having seen that exact trick during the opening ceremony on the night that he had been at the circus with his own family. "Way to go, man," he thought. Robin ran past him and threw a birdarang. "Think fast!" The birdarang was caught without doing a nick of damage. "Nice moves!" "Right back at ya." Robin cleaned himself off with a sweat towel and wrapped it around his shoulders. "Thanks. That was a good workout." The two Titans both left the gym feeling very satisfied.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3 Robin and Beast Boy

"Took my mind off things…" Robin walked down the hallway to one of the bathrooms to clean up with just a bit more spring in his step than he had all day. Beast Boy saw him coming from around the corner, "Hey, Robin…" The green mutant teenager changed himself into a bird and flew right in front of his friend. Then he landed in front of him and changed back, a wide, toothy, grin on his face. "Knock knock." No answer. Beast Boy opened his eyes and whispered "You're supposed to say "who's there?""

"_Knock, knock!"_

"_Who's there?"_

"_Olive."_

"_Olive, who?"_

"_I love you." _

"_I love you too, Mommy."_

Robin looked down, and walked past him. "Not now, Beast Boy." "Aw, dude…" Beast Boy frowned, changed into a rabbit and ran back in front of him again. "I'm just trying to cheer you up because, you know, today is—" "Yeah. Thanks. But I'm okay." Beast Boy decided to try one last thing. "Pull my finger?" Robin glared at Beast Boy, genuinely annoyed now. "Not in the mood." Beast Boy grimaced, defeated. The Teen Wonder walked around him to go into the bathroom. Beast Boy turned around and shouted "Then…I wouldn't open that door if I were you!" But it was too late, and before Robin had a chance to realize what was happening, he found himself drenched by a torrent of pinkish sludge that knocked him off his feet. "Don't worry, it's only non-dairy whipped cream. Heh." With that, the shapeshifter supreme zoomed away.

Chapter 4 Robin and Raven

Raven had been looking for Robin for a while before she finally found him. Since he was just washing off the gunk that Beast Boy had splashed all over him. Raven was easily the most socially awkward of the team and even among her closest friends she didn't always know what to say or how to say it. She caught sight of Robin's reflection in the mirror and her heart sank. He looked as if he was about to cry. Robin, her hero, the boy who had managed to keep hoping even during the end of the world (despite her telling him over and over that there was nothing that they could do) that somehow everything would turn out okay, was in despair. "I think I know him better than anyone else," the mistress of magic thought. "I've been in his shoes…I've been inside his mind," She had seen that horrible moment exactly as he had, from his eyes. Raven had seen his smiling parents swinging above a deadly height without a care in the world before they plummeted to their ends, screaming. "I know his darkest memory…I know his deepest pain." She had even stood there with him in front of the granite headstones and shoveled some earth on top of their coffins.  
>Meanwhile, those same images of his past flashed through Robin's own mind once more. Beast Boy had meant well, Robin knew that. But all that his jokes had done was made him realize again that in spite of everything, even after all this time, he still missed his family. He realized that during this time, he and his parents would have been getting ready for the last show that they would ever put on together. They would be stretching, warming up, putting on their costumes and stage makeup and "getting pumped" as Mom and Dad would say. Totally unaware that their happiness was about to end and that they were about to torn apart by a criminal's savage act of selfish greed and cruelty. She heard him draw a shuddering breath and her own breath caught in her throat. Raven stepped forward a little, intending to let him know that she was there. Robin turned his head, looking shocked. "Raven? How…how long have you been standing there" Robin exited the bathroom and smiled at her sheepishly. "Do you need to use the bathroom?" "No, but…do you need anything? I mean, if there's something I can do for you, just…just let me know. My healing power can also help with emotional—" Robin turned away, but he smiled again and said: "Thanks. I know I can count on you. Like the sister I never had." Robin remembered and knew that she had seen everything from his eyes and been inside of his mind. So she could understand his emotions better than almost anyone else. Because of that, she might as well have been his sister. But Robin knew that Raven had enough of her own problems and insecurities to deal with. She didn't need to be bothered any more with his. Raven looked on sadly. If there was one need that Raven understood, it was the need to be alone. So if that was really what he wanted, she would let him have it.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five Robin and Starfire

To see Robin, her best friend (and her _boyfriend_), like this broke her heart. One of the reasons why she was so attracted to the Boy Wonder was because she found an energy in him that matched her own. Even though he was not always as cheerful or happy as she was, Robin was still like her. He would keep going and continue to try long after others had given up. He had boundless confidence and bravery and was passionate about the things that mattered to him. He was always ready for action, for adventure. She climbed up to the roof of the tower and saw him standing there, all by himself, watching the sunset below the horizon. Robin checked the time on his communicator. The hour was here at last. Eight years ago, at this exact time, his family was ripped away from him.

"_Richard? Sweetheart, are you crying?" _

"_What's the matter Dickie? Did you have a nightmare?"_

"_Well, I-I was with you guys and we we're doing a show. But when you guys swung out over the ring? The-the rope snapped and you fell and there was screaming and-. And I was all alone and I was really scared!"_

_Mary gasped and climbed onto Dick's bed and held him close. She rocked him gently and hushed him, doing all that she could to soothe him as he buried his face in her chest and wept. He cried and cried. His family was all he had. Dick didn't go to school or have any children his own age to play with or keep him company, everyone else at the circus was so busy all the time with their own performances. The sheer idea of his parents dying was enough to keep him awake at night and cause him to cry. "Daddy why do you and Mommy have to perform without a net? You could die!" John got onto the bed and rubbed the little boy's back. "_Ves'tacha,_ I know it's scary, but we have to do it. We're the stars of Mr. Haly's show and that's a great honor for us. There are a lot of other circuses out there, so we have to have something in our show that can really wow a crowd and compete with them. A lot of those circuses also have trapeze artists, but none of them perform without safety nets like we do. In fact, if we did, Haly's Circus might go under, and we'd all lose our work and our home. Its sort of like we have to be the safety net everyone else even though we can't have one ourselves. Do you understand, son?" "Yeah…" "But don't you worry, all right? Your Mom and I are extra super-careful. You see how hard we practice. I've been performing without a net for more than ten years, longer than you've been alive, and nothing's ever happened to me. Also, we make sure that all of the equipment is perfect before every show. So nothing's gonna happen to us okay?" "Okay, Dad. I believe you." "Do you wanna sleep with us tonight, Dick? You can if you want to." Dick finally smiled at his mother. "Yes, please." He reached up for his Dad and John picked him up and carried him into his and Mary's room. Mary pulled back the bedclothes and got into their bed. John put him to bed next to his wife and she tucked him in. She hugged him from under the covers and kissed him on the forehead. "Goodnight, my little robin." John got in on the other side and did the same. "Sleep well son, we're right here." "Mom, Dad. I love you so much. Please don't go anywhere." "Shhhh. Don't worry. We're not going anywhere anytime soon." "We promise. We love you."  
><em>Robin felt a corner of his mask grow wet with tears so he peeled it off and allowed them to flow down his face. He couldn't be Robin at that moment, showing weakness and crying like that. And you know what? He didn't want to. He was only human after all and he knew that even Batman and Superman had their breaking points. He just hoped that none of teammates were going to show up and see him like-"Robin?"

Starfire was there. There for him, like she always was. He _loved _her for that. Even though he hadn't told her yet. "Are you all right?" she asked him. Dick quickly wiped away his tears before turning around to face her. For some reason, he didn't care that she saw him without his mask. There was no judgment and no incredulity in her expression. Just selfless worry and sympathy for the boy she had fallen in love in with. "Are you…crying?" What, did he think that he could hide that from her? He could get rid of his tears for a moment, but there was no hiding his swollen eyes and reddened visage. "No…no, I'm fine." The alien was unfazed. She understood Robin's need to always appear as though nothing could touch him or hurt him. But that did not make it right. He did not need to do this to himself, to always try to ignore his emotional needs and not ask for help from his friends when he needed it. He could rely on his friends for more that just battle. She pressed him. "Are you certain?"  
><em>"Mom? Dad?" <em>

"_What is it?"  
>"Yes?"<em>

"_I'm sorry I cried."  
>"What? Why would you be sorry for something like that?"<br>"Well, Jimmy, at school _(he had been to elementary school a few times, during off-season or if the circus stayed in town for a month)_, he said that boys aren't supposed to cry. That crying's for babies."  
>"Dick, Jimmy doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe crying all the time is for babies, but you should never, ever, feel ashamed about having the need to let your feelings out. Everyone does. It's part of what makes us human."<em>

"_Your Mom's right. I mean, look at me. You've seen me cry every now and then haven't you? Does that mean that I'm a baby?"_

"_No."  
>"Of course not. If you ask me, the people that make fun of those who aren't afraid of their emotions or the people who think they constantly have to hide how they feel are the real babies."<br>"Yeah…"  
><em>Dick shook his head. The rock in his throat and the pricking in his eyes grew too painful to suppress. "No…" At last he accepted the helping hand that Starfire held out to him. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder. "No, I'm not." She hugged him tightly without hesitation. "Here, here, Robin. Let it all out." Starfire felt his hot tears spill onto her neck and listened to his labored breathing and quiet weeping. Starfire did not show it, but she was in awe. Robin was never unfriendly, but when she had first met him, he had many invisible walls constructed around him. Hiding his true self and any weaknesses or fears from the world. Little by little, she and their other friends had seen them fall. Now, at last, she felt that she had shattered the very last one. "On Tamaran, it is acceptable for even the fiercest warriors to be tearful on such…anniversaries. There is no shame in displays of sadness. It honors those we have loved and lost…It is the same here on earth, yes?" Dick drew back a little once his eyes had gotten drier. Starfire placed a hand on his cheek and he lightly gripped her wrist. "Yeah, you're right. But it's not always easy to stop hiding behind the mask. To stop playing hero and just…be human." That was probably part of the reason why he had become Robin at such a young age. When he put on his mask, he was no longer an orphan. He was an unstoppable, infallible, champion of justice. But Robin was a persona, not a person. A role, not an actor. A role that would drive him insane if all he did was play it, and there was no shame in admitting that or in taking advantage of the fact that he had people around him who wanted him to feel loved and be happy. Unlike a certain Gothamite that he knew… Dick smiled ruefully as he put his mask back on. "It's a poor student who blames his teacher… so I won't. But luckily, I have you to remind me…There's more to life than chasing clues, solving mysteries, and beating the bad guys."

"_Dad? Mom? Can I ask you something?"_

"_Sure."_

"_Fire away."_

"_What's most important to you guys?" _

_John looked down at Dick and back at his wife. He put his arms around both of them. "The two of you." Mary nodded assent. "Mm-hm. Our family and friends." Dick puzzled over this for a moment. "Really?" This didn't bother John and Mary. Dick was only five and barely knew anything about life. "Of course. There's nothing more in life important than family and friends. Never lose sight of that. If all somebody has in life is family and friends that love him and that he loves back, well, then he can be happy." "Your father's right, Dick. Some people just work and work and work for success or for money or all kinds of reasons, but they never end being happy or satisfied because they don't cherish the people around them as much as they should." "Well, I'm gonna cherish you and Daddy forever! No matter what. Then I'll always be happy. And everyone else who's special to me too." _  
>He gently grasped her hand and looked deep into her beautiful green eyes. They pulled each other close and their lips met in a soft, loving kiss. The sun concluded its descent and twilight came. The young couple sat down more near the edge of the tower's roof, hands clasped, and watched the evening moon and stars take its place in the sky. Starfire inched a little closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Robin returned her advance and put his left arm around her and took her right hand in his. Both of the two teenagers savored every bit of the other's presence. There was nothing to fight, nothing to fear, nothing to say and they were at peace. Content for that moment to be nothing more than with each other.<p>

The End.


End file.
